China floods leave scores dead, displace 1.6 million

BEIJING: Floods and landslides have killed scores of people in China’s central Hunan province as two weeks of torrential rains forced 1.6 million to flee, authorities said Monday. Some 53,000 homes have collapsed while nearly 350,000 others were seriously or partially damaged after 11 straight days of rain, according to Tang Biyu, deputy director of Hunan’s civil affairs department. At least 63 people were killed by landslides, the flow of debris or the collapse of homes, while 20 more are missing, Tang said in a statement, which put the damage bill at $5.6 billion.